Total pages in book: 122
Estimated words: 116618 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 583(@200wpm)___ 466(@250wpm)___ 389(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 116618 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 583(@200wpm)___ 466(@250wpm)___ 389(@300wpm)
Then his skin begins to gray, cracks spreading from the wound in his chest, turning his flesh to ash from the inside out. His eyes, still fixed on mine, hold a final question that will never be answered.
He’s gone.
I stand for a moment, blade still extended, body vibrating with adrenaline and power and something else—completion. The vampire rage that drove me here hasn’t vanished, but it’s no longer separate, no longer other. It’s simply part of me.
“Callahan!” Ezra’s voice breaks through my reverie. “We need to leave. Now!”
Oh, right. The fire.
The warehouse is fully engulfed now, flames racing along the walls, consuming the wooden beams above. I turn to see Ezra supporting Lena, while Adonis helps Abe to his feet. Valtu is already at a side door, holding it open against the encroaching fire.
I cross to them quickly, taking Lena from Ezra’s arms. She feels impossibly light, fragile despite the vampire strength I know lies dormant beneath her wounds.
“You came for me,” she murmurs, her hand reaching up to touch my face, wiping away a smear of blood—Marco’s blood—from my chin.
“Always,” I promise, cradling her against my chest as we follow the others through the door, into the harsh daylight beyond. “Always.”
33
CALLAHAN
I’m dreaming. In a dark room, surrounded by people wearing red robes and ugly masks. In the middle of the room is a fire, Dmitri standing in the middle of it, engulfed by the flames. He’s calling me from within, I can feel the pull in my marrow. It’s like he’s still in control, still able to access me even through death.
I’m afraid I’m succumbing, afraid that as he whispers terrible things through the fire—that I’m a monster, a killer, a remorseless thug—that I’ll start to believe it. That I’ll become it, more than I already am.
He’s got a stranglehold on me, one that I fear I’ll never be free of.
Then I feel warmth spread though me. Hot wind that envelopes like a hug. The fire dances and Dmitri screams, pulled down, down, until he’s gone.
The flames abruptly stop and Lena emerges in their place, naked and beautiful with her hair flowing around her like a cape.
“You’re home,” she says to me, holding out her hand.
I wake up gasping for breath.
“Another dream again?”
I look down beside me on the bed to see Lena sleeping on her stomach, her mouth moving against the pillow, eyes closed.
God, she’s so fucking beautiful. In the darkness of the room, in these quiet hours in the middle of the night, she feels like sunshine, the only kind I can bear. The kind that gives life.
“Another dream,” I manage to say, licking my lips.
“Did it at least end happier this time?” she murmurs, stirring slightly, her hair falling off her smooth shoulder.
“It did.”
You’re my home, too, I think.
“But I still need some reassurance,” I tell her, my cock stirring, my voice coming out rough.
“Need me to remind you that we have our happy ending?” She stretches out, pushing her ass into the air. Her body is a perfect invitation.
“Need you to remind me how good you are,” I say, and roll on top of her. My skin’s already hot; the dream still has its claws in me. But her body’s hotter, and it’s mine now. Now and forever.
She lets out a soft noise—a half-gasp, half-laugh—as I pin her against the sheets.
“I love how wet you always are for me.” My fingers find her and she moans, spreading wider. It’s true: she’s soaking, dripping onto my hand as I slide two fingers inside. “Tight little pussy,” I tell her, thrusting them in deep. “Sweet little kitten.”
She turns her face toward me, pressing her cheek into the pillow, murmuring something I can’t quite make out until it gets louder: “I want your cock.”
I’m happy to oblige.
I pull her hips up until she’s kneeling and press against her from behind. Her mouth forms a perfect O as I push inside. Slow at first—shallow strokes that make us both crazy—but then she bucks back against me and the animal takes over.
“Fuck,” I growl as we move together, holding nothing back now, feeling the push and pull of us. “Goddamn, you feel so good.”
“You’re so deep,” she gasps.
“Deeper,” I promise, slamming harder, our bodies meeting with wet sounds that drive us both insane.
She cries out louder, biting down on the pillow to keep from waking the world with how close she already is.
I reach around and rub her clit while I pound into her from behind. She starts shaking almost immediately, like I knew she would.
“That’s it,” I tell her when she breaks apart around my cock, quivering as she comes. “I want everyone to hear that this pussy is mine. No one else’s but mine.”
She whimpers that it is—it always will be—and then grabs the sheets as another wave hits.